From the always-entertaining English Яussia:
In Russia and other post Soviet countries there were a real craze on independence after they finally got it with USSR collapse. Sometimes this took some weird forms like, for example, making the globes of their own country. Yes, those were just like regular globes we used to see on geography classes but instead the whole world only their own country was mapped on it.
If you’re feeling similarly solipsistic about your own state, town, city, or house, the tutorial goes on to explain how to use a free-to-try Photoshop plug-in called Flexify to roll your own. I can imagine that one might actually make money selling “Texas Globes” at truck stops around the state. Or “Manhattan Globes” in Battery Park. [Thanks, Billy Baque!]
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16 thoughts on “Strange Russian “local globe” DIY phenomenon”
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Okay, MAKE, I’m assigning you a new weekend project: Maker Faire map globe!
(And please, make up NORTH on the expo hall– those maps are driving us crazy.)
…if I can scavenge up a copy of PhotoShop, a printer, and a suitable globe during the course of this coming week, I may take you up on that challenge. =]
Using GIMP and mathmap you can do the globe thing very easily and for free on windows, linux and mac.
gimp: http://www.gimp.org/
mathmap – http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/schani/mathmap/
Here’s a mathmap script that will let you dynamically change the number of petals and where the cuts fall on the image.
There are many more applications for mathmap from the practical like removing camera lens distortion to the artistic like creating M.C. Escher style photographs:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4033/4521799276_87e93d0f5a.jpg
Many more examples at flickr if you search for mathmap.
Here’s the script:
#——————————————
#mathmap script to create printable globes
#Input should be twice as wide as it is tall
#or width=2*height
#—————————————–
filter sinusoidal(int divs: 3-20 (8),
float pan: -180-180(0),image in)
#divs – Number of divisions to create.
#pan – Panning left / right to align petals
py = 2;
counter = 0;
while (counter 1-(2*counter/divs)-1/divs && x1-(2*counter/divs)-1/divs && x=1-(2*counter/divs)-1/divs+W*pan/360)
then py=y
else py=py
end;
end;
counter = counter + 1;
end;
#allow the x axis to loop around
if px1 then px=px-2 end;
#finally here’s the output
in(xy:[px,py])
end
Rob, can you email me the working script? Alternatively, I may have to calculate a transform myself…
David – I created a webpage to show step by step how to do this with gimp and mathmap. I also posted an updated copy of the script there and a link to all the downloads needed.
http://www.oneildesigns.com/mathmap/
The script doesn’t post correctly…
Large swaths get deleted? Does this cgi not like greater than and less than symbols?
Your browser is likely ignoring text that happens to be between angle brackets because it thinks its HTML tags. Rob e-mailed me a copy of his script and I’ve replaced the brackets with the appropriate HTML escape sequences. Hopefully this will be cut and paste-able. If not, you might try viewing the source of this page and chopping out the text of his original script post.
filter sinusoidal(int divs: 3-20 (8),
float pan: -180-180(0),
image in)
#divs – Number of divisions to create.
#pan – Panning left / right to align petals
py = 2;
counter = 0;
while (counter <= divs) do
px = if (x>1-(2*counter/divs)-1/divs && x<=1-(2*counter/divs)+1/divs)
then (x-(1-(2*counter/divs)))/cos(y*pi)+1-(2*counter/divs)+W*pan/360
end;
if (x>1-(2*counter/divs)-1/divs && x<=1-(2*counter/divs)+1/divs) then
if (px<=1-(2*counter/divs)+1/divs+W*pan/360 && px>=1-(2*counter/divs)-1/divs+W*pan/360)
then py=y
else py=py
end;
end;
counter = counter + 1;
end;
#allow the x axis to loop around
if px<-1 then px=px+2 end;
if px>1 then px=px-2 end;
in(xy:[px,py])
end
Thanks for doing that Sean.